The lottery sector must unite to protect its market share and resist the threat posed by the global Coronavirus lockdown, says Spinola Gaming CEO Ade Repcenko.
In the majority of cases, a lottery will utilise a single service provider via long-term agreements that often prohibit the use of external or additional technologies.
These potentially restrictive deals can make it difficult for state-run operators to move online and continue to generate revenue, as existing providers are unable to facilitate the transition.
“In a time when people are keeping their distance, it’s important that we stick together to make sure lottery survives, not dies,” explains Repcenko.
“It’s time for the lottery sector to unite and join forces, to help each other and our clients for the greater good by working together on utilising technologies that enable all of us to add value to our existing relationships, which helps our clients continue to raise funds and generate revenues for good causes,” he says.
“Most importantly, we cannot let alternate options become more attractive to players than the games they are used to playing every week.”
The CEO believes that, thanks to the COVID-19 public health crisis, the industry is being forced to make the shift online earlier than planned. “For many, it would have been an inevitability over the next three-to-five years, but with retail now unable to sell tickets, that process has to be accelerated.”
Most operators are backed into a corner through long-term retail relationships, says Repcenko, with such relationships being the cornerstone to sales for the past decades, but now that model has to adapt.
“Operators could take a leaf out of the online casino business model that treats affiliates in the same way that retailers are to lotteries. The affiliate model is easily implemented, requires no new forms of technology or advanced development and allows both operator and retailer to take advantage of the current situations,” suggests Repcenko.
“At the same time, operators need to appeal to their existing software providers to look at ways in which they can remain active during these troubled times and will require a level of compromise from both sides. Operators need to look at new forms of revenue sharing to allow for the affiliate model to work and software providers need to open up to working with new and modern forms of technology to be able to provide the level of service that these state run operators very desperately need right now.”
